BIT 2002 Volume 21 Issue 1

This paper suggests a framework for understanding the roles that children
can play in the technology design process, particularly in regards to designing
technologies that support learning. Each role, user, tester, informant and
design partner has been defined based upon a review of the literature and the
author's own laboratory research experiences. This discussion does not suggest
that any one role is appropriate for all research or development needs.
Instead, by understanding this framework the reader may be able to make more
informed decisions about the design processes they choose to use with children
in creating new technologies. This paper will present for each role a
historical overview, research and development methods, as well as the
strengths, challenges and unique contributions associated with children in the
design process.

The aim of this study was to examine immediate memory performance for
multiple digit numbers in a practical read-and-key or listen-and-key task, and
to evaluate the most effective ways of presenting multiple digit numbers.
Variables measured were list length (4-10 digits), presentation mode (visual
simultaneously, auditory), grouping format (1+1, 2+2, 3+3) and presentation
time (0.5 sec/digit, 1.0 sec/digit). A total of 144 subjects participated. Not
surprisingly, list length is a vital factor in recall. A longer presentation
time was advantageous for both modes, while an effect of mode was observed only
for the ungrouped numbers, where the auditory condition was inferior. The
serial position curves showed primacy and recency with auditory presentation,
and primacy and a superior performance on the middle part of the list using
visual presentation. Local serial position effects revealed that ungrouped
numbers presented visually are subjectively grouped in twos. The results have
broad implications in the human factors area.

The expanding telephone number Part 2: Age variations in immediate memory
for multiple-digit numbers

Immediate ordered recall of multiple-digit numbers was investigated in a
practical read-and-key or listenand-key task for three age groups whose mean
ages were 25.2 years (range 23-27), 44.1 years (range 42-44) and 63.6 years
(range 61-68), all recruited from students and faculty staff at the University
of Oslo. The two younger groups performed at comparable levels on the immediate
memory task, surpassing the performance of the older group for both visual and
auditory presentation of the digit-strings. Increasing the presentation time of
the numbers affected the young and older age groups similarly by improving the
memory performance. Analyses of the serial position curves revealed an
enhancement of the well-known modality effect in the older subjects. The
overall decline in memory performance observed at the age of 65 should be taken
into account in design of communication technology for the general public.

Clinical acceptance of a low-cost portable system for postural assessment

The drive towards evidence-based practice in health-care requires changes in
work practices and supporting technology. In response to the requirement to
provide evidence, the current research proposes a new low-cost system for 3-D
postural assessment. The aims of the study were (1) to assess the technology
acceptance model (Davis 1993) for the new system and (2) to derive user
requirements with user involvement early in the development process. A
prototype system was developed and demonstrated to physiotherapists. Technology
acceptance was assessed using standardized questions (Davis and Venkatesh 1996)
and user needs were assessed with open-ended questions. Relations between the
technology acceptance components confirmed findings of previous research, with
perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness identified as pivotal factors in
clinical acceptance, and implications for design were drawn. Specific user
requirements for system development were derived from the qualitative results.
The prospects for computer-aided quantitative assessment of posture are
discussed.

Many approaches to the solutions of modern unstructured decision problems
mainly involve modelling, information technology and group behaviour. The work
of group decision-making can be viewed as a type of process plan that is
reflected by its problem structure within which the thinking space is wide and
innovative. This paper presents a Sequence-Oriented Decision Process Model
(SODPM) that is based on the defined sequence of problem elements to help solve
unstructured problems. A GDSSP (Group Decision Support System for Personnel
Promotion) that embeds a predefined mechanism to perform decision process,
decision model and decision choice is developed to experimentally demonstrate
the SODPM. Empirical evaluation was conducted to derive the results for the
research problems that include efficiency and group satisfaction. There were
remarkable results: the SODPM can serve as a facilitative vehicle for opinion
convergence and group satisfaction is highly positive. While the demonstrated
domain for the example presented is personnel promotion, the proposed SODPM can
be utilized to help solve the similar class of unstructured problems in other
domains also.

Determinants of academic use of the Internet: a structural equation model

The last decade of the 20th century brought radical changes in information
and communication technology. Internet usage is being widely researched in the
business world. However, the use of the Internet in academic settings in
general and in vocational and technical establishment in particular is a
neglected area. Successful use of the Internet is largely dependent upon the
user's behaviour that, in turn, affects their attitudes. Even when remarkable
opportunities exist for the deployment of technology, adverse attitude can
inhibit use. Keeping this in mind, a survey of 166 academics of four technical
and vocational colleges was conducted to study the attitudes of academics
toward the use of the Internet. This study develops a model and validates two
specific attitudinal variables -- perceived usefulness and perceived ease of
use -- which are hypothesized to be fundamental determinants of use of the
Internet. Adding two more variables -- such as task characteristics and
computer exposure -- test the parsimony of the model further. A structural
equation modelling technique is used to validate the model. The study confirmed
that 79% of academics are using the Internet. Computer experience, perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use remain to be fundamental determinants of
attitude formation. No other variables have been found to be significant.

BIT 2002 Volume 21 Issue 2

Examining children's reading performance and preference for different
computer-displayed text

This study investigated how common online text affects reading performance
of elementary school-age children by examining the actual and perceived
readability of four computer-displayed typefaces at 12- and 14-point sizes.
Twenty-seven children, ages 9 to 11, were asked to read eight children's
passages and identify erroneous/substituted words while reading. Comic Sans MS,
Arial and Times New Roman typefaces, regardless of size, were found to be more
readable (as measured by a reading efficiency score) than Courier New. No
differences in reading speed were found for any of the typeface combinations.
In general, the 14-point size and the examined sans serif typefaces were
perceived as being the easiest to read, fastest, most attractive, and most
desirable for school-related material. In addition, participants significantly
preferred Comic Sans MS and 14-point Arial to 12-point Courier. Recommendations
for appropriate typeface combinations for children reading on computers are
discussed.

The limits of shape constancy: point-to-point mapping of perspective
projections of flat figures

The present experiments investigate point-to-point mapping of perspective
transformations of 2D outline figures under diverse viewing conditions:
binocular free viewing, monocular perspective with 2D cues masked by an optic
tunnel, and stereoptic viewing through an optic tunnel. The first experiment
involved upright figures, and served to determine baseline point-to-point
mapping accuracy, which was found to be very good. Three shapes were used:
square, circle and irregularly round. The main experiment, with slanted
figures, involved only two shapes -- square and irregularly shaped -- showed at
several slant degrees. Despite the accumulated evidence for shape constancy
when the outline of perspective projections is considered, metric perception of
the inner structure of such projections was quite limited. Systematic
distortions were found, especially with more extreme slants, and attributed to
the joint effect of several factors: anchors, 3D information, and slant
underestimation. Contradictory flatness cues did not detract from performance,
while stereoptic information improved it.

Effects of the transition to a client-centred team organization in
administrative surveying work

A new work organization was introduced in administrative surveying work in
Sweden during 1998. The new work organization implied a transition to a
client-centred team-based organization and required a change in competence from
specialist to generalist knowledge as well as a transition to a new information
technology, implying a greater integration within the company. The aim of this
study was to follow the surveyors for two years from the start of the
transition and investigate how perceived consequences of the transition, job,
organizational factors, well-being and effectiveness measures changed between
1998 and 2000. The Teamwork Profile and QPS Nordic questionnaire were used. The
205 surveyors who participated in all three study phases constituted the study
group. The result showed that surveyors who perceived that they were working as
generalists rated the improvements in job and organizational factors
significantly higher than those who perceived that they were not yet
generalists. Improvements were noted in 2000 in quality of service to clients,
time available to handle a case and effectiveness of teamwork in a transfer to
a team-based work organization group, cohesion and continuous improvement
practices -- for example, learning by doing, mentoring and guided delegation --
were important to improve the social effectiveness of group work.

An experimental evaluation of comprehensibility aspects of knowledge
structures derived through induction techniques: a case study of industrial
fault diagnosis

Machine induction has been extensively used in order to develop knowledge
bases for decision support systems and predictive systems. The extent to which
developers and domain experts can comprehend these knowledge structures and
gain useful insights into the basis of decision making has become a challenging
research issue. This article examines the knowledge structures generated by the
C4.5 induction technique in a fault diagnostic task and proposes to use a model
of human learning in order to guide the process of making comprehensive the
results of machine induction. The model of learning is used to generate
hierarchical representations of diagnostic knowledge by adjusting the level of
abstraction and varying the goal structures between 'shallow' and 'deep' ones.
Comprehensibility is assessed in a global way in an experimental comparison
where subjects are required to acquire the knowledge structures and transfer to
new tasks. This method of addressing the issue of comprehensibility appears
promising especially for machine induction techniques that are rather
inflexible with regard to the number and sorts of interventions allowed to
system developers.

Effectiveness of user testing and heuristic evaluation as a function of
performance classification

For different levels of user performance, different types of information are
processed and users will make different types of errors. Based on the error's
immediate cause and the information being processed, usability problems can be
classified into three categories. They are usability problems associated with
skill-based, rule-based and knowledge-based levels of performance. In this
paper, a user interface for a Web-based software program was evaluated with two
usability evaluation methods, user testing and heuristic evaluation. The
experiment discovered that the heuristic evaluation with human factor experts
is more effective than user testing in identifying usability problems
associated with skill-based and rule-based levels of performance. User testing
is more effective than heuristic evaluation in finding usability problems
associated with the knowledge-based level of performance. The practical
application of this research is also discussed in the paper.

Development and validation of user-adaptive navigation and information
retrieval tools for an intranet portal organizational memory information system

Based on previous research and properties of organizational memory, a
conceptual model for navigation and retrieval functions in an Intranet portal
organizational memory information system was proposed, and two human-centred
features (memory structure map and history-based tool) were developed to
support user's navigation and retrieval in a well-known organizational memory.
To test two hypotheses concerning the validity of the conceptual model and two
human-centred features, an experiment was conducted with 30 subjects. Testing
of the two hypotheses indicated the following: (1) the memory structure map's
users showed 29% better performance in navigation, and (2) the history-based
tool's users outperformed by 34% in identifying information. The results of the
study suggest that a conceptual model and two human-centred features could be
used in an user-adaptive interface design to improve user's performance in an
intranet portal organizational memory information system.

BIT 2002 Volume 21 Issue 3

New type of standard for accessibility, designed to foster the competition
and innovation of designers, developers, and project and business management

This paper describes the many beneficiaries of accessibility to IT, creating
a multifaceted business opportunity. Evolution is underway as some
organizations and governments develop and adopt accessibility standards and
regulations. But organized planning, design and development of technology
solutions require improved tactics and strategies. The very recent US Section
508 is a new and novel regulatory marketing strategy in the evolution of
standards. This regulatory standard's effectiveness dependents upon the
'innovation and divergent thinking' of those directly involved in product
design. Designers, developers and their management are most comfortable with an
analytical structure based on improved definition and measurement. Research
will improve understanding of the human performance requirements of the client
audience. Research and standards should continue but certain areas are in need
of more immediate focus, e.g. human performance requirements in cognition.

Surveys about automated telephone answering systems, known as interactive
voice response systems or IVRs, report high levels of dissatisfaction,
especially among older users. To identify the problems IVR users experience, 22
community-dwelling senior women and 22 female university students were
monitored while they performed the same six real IVR tasks. As expected, old
age had a negative impact on performance, but seniors were polarized into very
poor and very good performers. Seniors gave lower usability ratings than young
people; only young users gave high ratings to the one voice-activated system.
Users' problems were mostly caused by design flaws in the IVR systems,
especially ambiguous choices or instructions, and too-rapid automated voices.
Young and old participants had similar complaints, but most young users
overcame all difficulties, while the majority of seniors failed because of
age-related losses in capacities. The solution is not special products for the
old, but universal design that will make IVRs and other technological products
more usable for everyone.

The primary goal of this paper is to identify critical design factors that
have substantial effects on the performance of e-commerce systems. This paper
presents a theoretical model that examines the relationships among detailed
design factors, perceived quality level and final performance of e-commerce
systems. Two consecutive empirical studies were conducted to verify the
theoretical model. Results from these studies reveal that the information phase
among four transaction phases was the most influential in the final performance
of e-commerce systems. Among the myriad design factors related to the
information phase, product-related information, depth and variety of the system
structure, variety of list view for products, consistency of product and
background presentation, and variety of presentation for product information
were all found to be closely related to the perceived quality level. This paper
ends with the theoretical and practical implications of the study results.

Expandable indexes vs. sequential menus for searching hierarchies on the
World Wide Web

An experiment is reported that compared expandable indexes providing full
menu context with sequential menus providing only partial context. Menu depth
was varied using hierarchies of two, three and four levels deep in an
asymmetric structure of 457 root level items. Menus were presented on the World
Wide Web within a browser. Participants searched for specific targets. Results
suggest that reducing the depth of hierarchies improves performance in terms of
speed and search efficiency. Surprisingly, expandable indexes resulted in
poorer performance with deeper hierarchies than did sequential menus.

Technology adoption as process: a case of integrating an
information-intensive website into a patient education helpline

This study followed the introduction of the Arthritis Source website into
the existing teaching practices of Arthritis Foundation Helpline volunteers.
The goal was to examine what factors may affect a particular group of educators
adopt a potentially valuable Internet tool into an existing instructional
environment. Defining the possible uses of the website in reference to the
volunteers' actual job duties helped provide a clearer understanding of how the
volunteers might use this new technology. The researchers used qualitative
techniques to focus on three volunteers who experienced different physical,
environmental and cognitive means that impacted their use of the new tool. Each
volunteer experienced varying levels of motivation in areas of learning,
satisfaction and responses to outside influences. Each volunteer also had
varying amounts of opportunity prompts in which to interact or refer the
website. Consequently, Helpline volunteers experienced different rates of
adopting the information-intensive website into their traditional work system.

A UK study into the potential effects of virtual education: does online
learning spell an end for on-campus learning?

Contemporary research into virtual learning embraces the concept that the
constraints of time and place of study are eliminated. The potential market it
could therefore encapsulate is phenomenal and the subsequent changes that
threaten to ricochet through the higher education sector can be described as
evolutionary. Whilst concurrently being an incredibly exciting prospect for
future learners, online learning is also making the traditional 'bricks and
mortar' higher education establishment extremely uneasy, arousing fears of
global competition, which would evoke a need for transformational change. The
UK has embraced technology to support virtual learning across the whole
tertiary education sector. There is an implicit assumption that the provision
of systems to support remote, independent learners will provide learner-centred
environments for all to access. This may not be the case as evidenced by
O'Donoghue et al. (2001), amongst others. This paper aims to examine the
possible metamorphosis of the organizational structure of the higher education
system, and the methods university administrators and lecturers will need to
use to adapt to this. Through considering the impact on students, an analysis
will be made of the extent of the threat that distance learning imposes on the
traditional campus. The work centres on the UK experience, but draws heavily on
the opportunities, threats and promises of globalize learning paradigms.

BIT 2002 Volume 21 Issue 4

This study addresses the issues concerning the design of adverse condition
warning systems (ACWS). ACWS are designed to sense adverse road and weather
conditions as well as system states that can negatively impact driving
performance leading to skids or accidents, and alert drivers to these
conditions. In this case, an ACWS was designed to sense when a car was likely
to skid. A virtual-driving environment was used to test two levels of alarm
sensitivity (low and high) and two types of auditory alarm signal (Binary
ON/OFF and Graded) along with a no-alarm control group. Dependent measures
reflected driver performance, response to the alarm signal and trust in the
alerting system. Results indicated that participants had fewer skids in the low
sensitivity and graded alarm signal condition compared to some other alerting
system configurations. Participants in the graded alarm signal condition also
had a greater degree of lateral control over the vehicle. Additionally, trust
was found to be lower for the high vs. low sensitivity alarm condition,
indicating a reduction in trust when the alerting system activated more often,
perhaps because participants did not feel the system was accurately reflecting
a dangerous condition. This simulator-based research emphasizes the fact that
while ACWS may provide an advantage in terms of vehicle control,
characteristics of both the alerting signal and system configuration should be
considered.

Human factors in the design of a personalizable EPG: preference-indication
strategies, habit watching and trust

The article describes a user study to support the design of a personalizable
EPG (Electronic TV Programme Guide), and of its user interface for editing user
preference profiles regarding TV channels and categories. This study focuses on
issues related to users' behaviour and perceptions regarding a personalizable
EPG, and especially regarding the personalization process. Users were presented
with a paper-and-pencil procedure to indicate their TV viewing preferences, as
well as with an electronic version. Their strategies were observed and their
opinions asked, especially on trusting a system that uses this data. Moreover,
their viewing behaviour was monitored over a period of two weeks, and
recommendations for the second week were based on the viewing behaviour of the
first week. The results indicate that users are reasonably comfortable and
consistent in describing their viewing habits in terms of preferences, both for
the paper-and-pencil and electronic preference-indication procedures, but that
fine tuning this profile on the basis of habit watching would considerably
improve the efficacy of the recommendations. It was found that subjects trust
the system with the task of preselecting their TV programmes on the basis of
their preference indications, although they are not sure whether a
habit-watching system would be capable of following their changing habits over
time.

Since the explosion of the Web as a business medium, one of its primary uses
has been for marketing. Soon, the Web will become a critical distribution
channel for the majority of successful enterprises. The mass media, consumer
marketers and advertising agencies seem to be in the midst of Internet
discovery and exploitation. Before a company can envision what might sell
online in the coming years, it must first understand the attitudes and
behaviour of its potential customers. Hence, this study examines attitudes
toward various aspects of online shopping and provides a better understanding
of the potential of electronic commerce for both researchers and practitioners.

This work examined the hypothesis that elderly people are less confident
than young people in their own computer knowledge. This was done by having 49
young (M = 22.6 years) and 42 older (M = 68.6 years) participants to assess
their global self-efficacy beliefs and to make item-by-item prospective
(feeling-of-knowing: FOK) and retrospective (confidence level: CL) judgments
about their knowledge in the two domains of computers and general knowledge.
The latter served as a control domain. Item difficulty was equated across age
groups in each domain. In spite of this age equivalence in actual performance,
differences were found in FOK and CL ratings for computers but not for general
knowledge, with older people being less confident than young people in their
own computer knowledge. The greater age difference in ratings observed in the
computer domain, as compared with the general domain, was even greater for the
FOK than for the CL judgments. Statistical control of age differences in global
self-efficacy beliefs in the computer domain (poorer in the older participants,
but not in the general domain), eliminated age differences in FOK and CL
judgments in the same domain. These findings confirm earlier ones. They suggest
that underconfidence in their relevant abilities is one possible source of the
difficulties that the elderly may encounter in mastering new computer
technologies.

Effects of transition to an integrated IT technology in surveying work

An integrated IT technology, characterized by a change in information
support from a strong specialization towards greater integration has been
introduced within the surveying company in Sweden. The aim of this study is to
compare and describe effects of the transition to this new information
technology in relation to job and organizational characteristics and
effectiveness and well-being measures between 1998 and 2000. The results show
that a positive attitude to the new IT system increased from 1998 to 2000. The
transition to a new IT technology had negative consequences on job content and
job control in 1999 but improvements could be seen in 2000. Co-operation with
clients and service quality to clients improved each year from 1998 to 2000.
Generally, a positive attitude to IT integration was related to high continuous
improvement practices, goal clarity and job control in all three phases.
However, the relations were reduced in 1999.

Impact of national culture on information technology usage behaviour: an
exploratory study of decision making in Korea and the USA

The globalization of world markets has led to the introduction of
information technology, most often developed in western cultures, to other
societies. Cultural values were embedded in the design and use of these
technologies. Often, the receiving society did not embrace the technology
because of culture. Examples of such behaviour include executive information
systems and group decision support systems, which are cited later. This study
examines the use of non-specific applications of information technology for
organizational decision making. A survey instrument was developed to measure
decision makers' perceptions of the impact of information technology on the
decision process. Decision makers in Korea and the USA indicated their
perceptions of the extent information technology use impacted their decision
making activities. The results indicated some behaviours appeared to change to
take advantage of the technology, while others, particularly those associated
with the cultural preference for communication, did not.

BIT 2002 Volume 21 Issue 5

The influence of user expertise and phone complexity on performance, ease of
use and learnability of different mobile phones

The study focuses on usability, ease of use and learnability of three
different mobile phones (Nokia 3210, Siemens C35i, Motorola P7389). The first
independent variable refers to the complexity of the menu (depth/breadth of the
menu tree) and navigation keys (number/functionality). The Nokia phone had the
lowest and the Motorola the highest complexity, with the Siemens phone ranging
between them. The second independent variable was user expertise: 30 novices
and 30 experts solved six telephone tasks. In order to assess effects of
learnability, tasks were presented twice. Differences between the mobile phones
regarding effectiveness, efficiency and learnability were found: The best
performance was shown by Nokia users. The remaining two phones did not differ
significantly, although the most complex phone was superior to the phone of
medium complexity which had the lowest performance. Moreover, an effect of
expertise was confirmed, though suboptimal interfaces were identified as
lessening the advantage of expertise. Specific weaknesses of the tested phones
are discussed.

Visibility and characteristics of the mobile phones for elderly people

Although mobile phones (MPs) have become important IT devices, there are few
studies on the visibility of MPs for elderly people. Using six types of MPs, we
analysed the reading performance among elderly people who read 11 numerics on
each MP. The subjects were 130 people aged 18 to 86 years, including 60 people
over 60 years of age. The subjects' visual functions of cataract cloudiness
(CC) and near vision for a 50 cm distant target (NV) were measured. In a twoway
ANOVA, two kinds of dependant variables, reading speed (RS) and the number of
errors in reading (Error) were used for the subjects' reading performance. Two
independent variables were taken from five variables. Each time one variable
was fixed as the type of MPs. The other was taken as either age, CC, NV,
individual history on MP operation or room illuminance (RI). Eventually, 10
ANOVAs were calculated. Significant differences were found in all ANOVAs except
that for RI. We undertook a multiple logistic regression analysis. Independent
variables of CC, NV and vertical length of characters (VL) and two kinds of
dependent variables, RS and Error, were used. Visual functions and a short VL
were related to slow RS and increased Errors.

Using mouse and keyboard under time pressure: preference, strategies and
learning

Visually based point-and-click user interfaces have become very common. This
increases the need to understand the mechanics in learning and using pointing
devices in order to design appropriate human-computer interaction and thereby
to help alleviate musculosketetal symptoms. The paper reports a study of
preference, strategies and learning in using keyboard and mouse in a tracking
task under time pressure. The keyboard was preferred by 11 out of 12 subjects
due primarily to comfort, frustration, and visual strain. One of the most
distinguishing features in favour of the keyboard was the opportunity to
develop a working strategy facilitating learning.

The design of the user interface of a digital welding machine based on a
user centred design process is described in this paper. Due to the iterative
design process and the involvement of end users, interaction techniques have
been designed which are optimised for the mental work model of the target user
groups.

Requirements for community support systems -- modularization, integration
and ubiquitous user interfaces

Community support platforms are gaining more and more interest in areas
ranging from leisure support and customer support in electronic commerce to
knowledge management in enterprises. However, current solutions usually are
built as proprietary systems or as add-ons to systems designed for other
purposes. The platforms are usually not very customizable and interoperable and
are not utilizing the full potential of the community support idea. We have
introduced community platforms in several domains and have derived some
requirements in these projects. These requirements are mainly related to
different aspects of usability. In this paper we present the requirements and
motivate an architecture for community support systems designed to fulfil these
requirements.

User-friendly visualization of object versions and archives in collaborative
computer work

Data, states, events, information, experience and knowledge are present in
all production enterprises in a vast array of forms. There is a common trend
for storage, administration and processing of these in a distributed and
connected information system for collaborative computer work. Work objects and
data in a shared computer application can be continually changed and modified
by different users working simultaneously with this application. Due to the
different versions and the history of a common working object it becomes more
and more important to be aware of the various states of the object. Within a
recently completed comparative investigation study at the 'Laboratory for
Human-Machine-Interaction' of the ifab-Institute, different ways of visualizing
object versions and archives were evaluated. The investigation was based on
different structured visualization forms.

This paper empathizes the interface design for a new control system for
freight that was developed during the process of modernization in a company. On
one side, there are managers, intermediate decision levels, that dialogue with
the ergonomists and, on the other side, the operators with their own opinions
about the system. These last ones are rarely asked by the managers about their
opinions. The proposed system is configured from the opinions of the operators.
Other problems, such as technology transfer and insistence of the managers
about using similar systems obliged that the final project should include some
modifications.

The development of driver assistance systems following usability criteria

Increasing numbers of intelligent driver assistance systems are now being
installed in motor vehicles to support drivers. In order to ensure that the
stress reduction benefits obtained from these systems are not nullified or even
outweighed by new stresses at the vehicle's man-machine interfaces, the
systems' control concepts must be designed to high ergonomic standards. This
paper seeks to identify design weaknesses in assistance systems by presenting
criteria that must, on the one hand, be observed when designing the control
concept of a new assistance system and, on the other hand, be applied when
assessing the man-machine interfaces of assistance systems already installed in
a vehicle.

Team work is the customary type of labour organisation used in the framework
of Concurrent Engineering (CE). It requires a suitable design of the supporting
software. As a first step a model of Concurrent Engineering Team Effectiveness
(CETEM) has been developed on the basis of a meta-analysis. Within the scope of
an empirical study -- which was actually meant to test this new model --
guidelines for software-support in Concurrent Engineering Teams were derived.
The study was designed as participative observation and continuous process
mapping of ten different teams. Sixty-seven measurements were being conducted
in team meetings in order to show a correlation between the described
variables. Correlation and cluster analyses were utilised. On a super-ordinated
management level project contents and objectives as well as their temporal and
logical context should be mapped with the help of a workflow-system. On a more
operational level in the team itself, degrees of freedom regarding temporal and
logical sequence of activities can be accepted. Nevertheless, detailed planning
concerning the contents of activities should take place with the assistance of
groupware- or database-solutions.

SWOF -- an open framework for shared workspaces to support different
cooperation tasks

Computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) allows people to cooperate by
computers from different places and at different times. To enable an easier
integration of such collaborative components into web-based communities and
portals, a Shared Workspace Open Framework (SWOF) was developed. This framework
provides the basic features of shared workspaces and can be customized to
different cooperation cases. High usability is an important aspect of the
implementation. To achieve these aims SWOF focuses on an information space with
more task-suited item-types that can help to pre-structure the information.
Thus, on the one hand the system can help the users to write down the needed
information in a consistent way and, on the other, could reduce the arguments
between the group members on how to structure their workspace. As a use case
for SWOF the development of a Web-based portal for the community of man-machine
interaction was chosen. In the project MMI-Interaktiv, a portal is built with a
SWOF-based shared workspace component. An evaluation for this use case is
presented.

Human collaboration in distributed knowledge sharing groups depends on the
functionality of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support
performance. Since many of these dynamic environments are constrained by time
limits, knowledge must be shared efficiently by adapting the level of
information detail to the specific situation. This paper focuses on the process
of knowledge and context sharing with and without mediation by ICT, as well as
issues to be resolved when determining appropriate ICT channels. Both
technology-rich and non-technology examples are discussed.

Virtual communities supported by computers and communication facilities have
existed for about two decades. Virtual meetings around the world became
technically feasible once there was a sufficient number of satellites to relay
data communication, and became commonplace at companies that could afford
computer-mediated communication (CMC). Today, technological advances, coupled
with social changes, mean that virtual communities can be useful to many
people. The goal of this session is to demonstrate how virtual communities can
be established and kept going using inexpensive technical means. The meeting
will be held during a scientific conference on worldwide distributed work, by
presenters who have organized and run at least one virtual event. It will
itself be a virtual event, with contributions from Philadelphia in the west to
Hong Kong in the east and South Africa in the south. The physical auditorium
will be present in Berchtesgaden, a small town in the south of Germany; virtual
participants may be anywhere.

BIT 2002 Volume 21 Issue 6

Shopping behaviour and preferences in e-commerce of Turkish and American
university students: implications from cross-cultural design

With internationalization of commerce and business and with increased use of
e-business and e-commerce, it is important to ensure that these systems can be
effectively utilized across cultural boundaries. To increase effectiveness,
appropriate changes and modifications in the systems may be required. With this
in mind, a survey of 300 Turkish university students was undertaken to assess
their on-line shopping and behaviour preferences, and these were compared with
the results derived from 64 US university students. The results provide
guidelines for specific design of features for the Turkish population that may
not be necessary for the US population.

With internationalization of commerce and business and with increased use of
e-business and e-commerce, it is important to ensure that these systems can be
effectively utilized across cultural boundaries. To increase effectiveness,
appropriate changes and modifications in the systems may be required. With this
in mind, a survey of 300 Turkish university students was undertaken to assess
their on-line shopping and behaviour preferences, and these were compared with
the results derived from 64 US university students. The results provide
guidelines for specific design of features for the Turkish population that may
not be necessary for the US population.

A tool was developed for structured and detailed analysis of video data from
user tests of interactive systems. It makes use of a table format for
representing an interaction at multiple levels of abstraction. Interactions are
segmented based on threshold times for pauses between actions. Usability
problems are found using a list of observable indications for the occurrence of
problems. The tool was evaluated by having two analysts apply it to three data
sets from user tests on two different products. The segmentation technique
proved to yield meaningful segments that helped in understanding the
interaction. The interaction table was explicit enough to discuss in detail
what had caused the differences in the analysts' lists of usability problems.
The results suggested that the majority of differences were caused by
unavoidable differences in interpretations of subjects' behaviour and that only
minor improvements should be expected by refining the tool.

Shifting knowledge from analysis to design: requirements for contextual user
interface development

There is consensus among the members of the HCI community as well as among
software developers that work tasks and user characteristics (i.e. context)
should play a leading role in the course of system development. There seems to
be less consensus on how the information about users and work tasks should be
acquired and subsequently moved to the design process of a development project.
Due to the use of unifying methods and concepts -- such as object-orientation
-- that might be used for analysis, design and implementation, this transition
seems to be facilitated. However, few inputs have been provided to guide
developers on how to shift knowledge from analysis to design when task- and
user knowledge are considered to be inherent parts of the development
knowledge. This paper details the interface between analysis and design,
reviews existing concepts to bridge the gap between the two phases of
development, and enriches these findings with some empirical results from a
survey with respect to practical experiences. From these findings, requirements
to successfully shift knowledge in the early phases of software development
have been derived.

The use of computers among the workers in the European Union and its impact
on the quality of work

For many people it is impossible to imagine working life today without a
computer. What the increase of the use of computers means for the quality of
the work, is still under discussion. The object of this study is to show the
recent developments (1992-2000) in the use of computers among the working
population in the European Union and its impact on the quality of working life.
The data used for these analyses were collected on a five-year basis by means
of a questionnaire. Results show that the use of computers has increased
between 1992 and 2000. The increase in computer use is almost completely the
result of developments within white-collar occupations. In general, the use of
a computer results in more qualified work and less physical strain. However,
those who work with a computer permanently, clearly show more signs of physical
and mental strain than those who use the computer only part of the time. This
could mean that adding other tasks than computer tasks could improve the
working conditions of those using the computer permanently. These results
suggest that the increase of the use of computers will further improve the
quality of work except when one neglects the dangers connected with a permanent
use of computers.